A proposed statewide policy would require Connecticut police to consider referring children suspected of misdemeanors to community services instead of arresting them.
The directive is meant to hold children accountable with restorative practices instead of sending them through the court system for charges such as disorderly conduct and breach of peace.
The measure, now under consideration by the state's Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) Council, also aims to standardize how law enforcement officers handle youth cases, reducing potential racial disparities in youth arrests.
Erica Bromley, a consultant for the Connecticut Youth Services Association, helped create the policy as a member of the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee’s diversion workgroup. She said diversionary programs allow kids to take responsibility for any harm and actively fix it.
“We really want to hold kids accountable,” she said. “A lot of people talk about accountability, but often they're really talking about punishment.”
Currently, police have the option to refer kids to Youth Diversion Teams, but agencies and individual officers are mostly left to decide between arrest or diversion.
While not an absolute mandate, the new policy would establish an expectation for departments to offer youth suspected of a first or second misdemeanor the option to participate in diversion instead of juvenile court.
Officers would be free to divert youth at their discretion for more serious crimes, or after a second misdemeanor.
Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said the language was developed thoughtfully by advocates and subject matter experts.
Spagnolo serves on the juvenile justice committee, and on the POST Council and its youth diversion subgroup, which drafted and reviewed the new guidelines.
“I think that it provides clear guidance to police departments statewide,” he said. “It puts everyone on a similar playing level as far as what a diversion is, [and] when somebody should be diverted."
Youth Diversion Teams, also known as Juvenile Review Boards, coordinate most of these programs. The teams are composed of community members and can include representatives from law enforcement, probation, schools and mental health providers.
If a child and their guardian accept a referral, the diversion team conducts a risk assessment and develops an individual plan centered on accountability and restorative practices. It can recommend counseling, community service, restitution, mentoring or other programs. If completed, the minor avoids court.
The new policy is part of a bigger push to expand access to diversionary programs in Connecticut towns where they aren't now available. Adopting it would be a milestone for the state.
Nevertheless, some feel the version under consideration doesn't do enough to steer children away from the criminal justice system. Under the policy, police would retain the option to arrest kids facing misdemeanors for the first time.
Christina Quaranta, executive director of the Connecticut Justice Alliance, said she has been pushing to expand diversionary programs for more than a decade. She was part of a workgroup that created the policy’s first draft.
“In my experience, having a policy that says young people must be diverted as a mandate works much better,” she said. “Everyone understands the orders and what they have to do.”
The proposal is the latest effort to address inequities in the state’s youth diversion programs.
A 2020 report by the Council of State Governments highlighted the problem. It found Black kids in Connecticut were less likely to be referred to services by Juvenile Review Boards than their Hispanic or non-Hispanic white peers.
In 2022 and 2023, the juvenile justice committee submitted a diversion plan to Connecticut lawmakers, but the measure failed both times. The committee then shifted its strategy, proposing the POST Council adopt an enforceable policy.
It argues youth cases have different outcomes because of unclear guidelines and inconsistent diversion strategies across law enforcement agencies.
Figures released two years ago showed diversion programs served more white kids than Black kids between 2023 and 2024. That's despite more Black kids receiving youth delinquency referrals to appear in court during an overlapping one-year period — suggesting they were potentially eligible for diversion, but didn't receive it.
Reporting by Connecticut Public also showed Black kids received court referrals at a rate nearly five times higher than the rate for white kids in recent years.
“I would like to see some more change happening faster, meaningful change for young people,” Quaranta said. “A decade has passed and we are still having the same conversations.”
A big hurdle in advocating against arresting youth, Quaranta said, is that data on police diversions is either not collected, or not collected well.
The new policy would require police officers to log whether they referred a child to a Youth Diversion Team or Juvenile Review Board, as well as the youth’s demographics, the type of referral and the outcome. When they opt for an arrest instead, officers would need to explain their reasons.
Entries would go to a statewide diversion tracking log so officers can check if a youth had already been referred to a diversion team. But the required framework currently does not exist.
Spagnolo said developing a statewide database will be important for the success of the initiative and the kids involved.
“We don't want to continuously divert someone that is engaging in the same type of risky or criminal behavior, even at a lower level,” he said.
The need to develop a tracking system has raised concerns about approving the policy. The POST Council postponed acting on the measure last month.
However, Spagnolo said he believes the council shouldn't wait. Police can start implementing the guidelines before the new data component is in place, he said.
“I’ve talked to some chiefs about it. I think that the policy is going to be met with open arms," he said.
